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November, 2016

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil’s blistering rally of up to 10 percent to $50 a barrel on Wednesday should continue into next week, analysts and fund managers said, after the world’s top producers announced a historic deal to rein in output.

Samsung has announced road map for a corporate restructuring that might include splitting itself into two. The company has retained external advisors to review the optimal corporate structure for its activities. The review is expected to take six months. Depending on the findings, Samsung may create a holding company structure and might list its shares on additional international exchanges.

THE hero of Nick Hornby’s novel, “High Fidelity”, cannot get enough of vinyl records. By day Rob Fleming runs a record shop where he spends his time sampling the stock and constructing fantasy compilations with his equally obsessive assistants. By night he moons over his favourite songs. “Is it so wrong, wanting to be at home with your record collection?” he asks himself. “There’s a whole world in here, a nicer, dirtier, more violent, more peaceful, more colourful, sleazier, more dangerous, more loving world than the world I live in.”

Rob is an example of what management gurus dub “super-consumers”, “lead consumers” or “high-passion fans”. Only a tenth of customers are super-consumers but they account for 30-70% of sales, an even greater share of profits and almost 100% of “customer insights”, says a new book, “Super-Consumers”, written by Eddie Yoon of the Cambridge Group, a consultancy.

These people are not defined simply by the amount of stuff they buy (though they tend to be heavy users), but by their attitude to the product. Like Rob, they regard the things that they consume as answers to powerful…Continue reading

Amazon is developing a premium version of its Alexa-powered Echo speaker, which will have a 7-inch touchscreen, in a bid to stave off competition from Google and other companies developing rival offerings, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. Designed for use in the kitchen, the new device would have an upward-tilting touchscreen that would permit a user to swipe controls from a standing position.

ZURICH (Reuters) – Shares in Swiss biotech company Actelion fell more than 6 percent after news outlet streetinsider.com reported on Wednesday the company had rejected a full takeover offer by U.S. healthcare group Johnson & Johnson and may sell a unit.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve policymakers should put less emphasis publicly on the short-term outlook for interest rate increases and more on the economics driving monetary policy and the uncertainty of forecasts, Fed Governor Jerome Powell s…